


cat eulogy

by harmfulmyths



Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Animal Death, Gen, there is nothing explicitly romantic here but authorial intent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:34:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28742574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harmfulmyths/pseuds/harmfulmyths
Summary: The stupid cat was fucking dead.
Relationships: Hagakure Yasuhiro & Kuwata Leon, Hagakure Yasuhiro/Kuwata Leon
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	cat eulogy

"We should -- we should probably say something," Yasuhiro says, leaning on the rusty shovel.

"Uh-huh," Leon says. They're standing in the Hagakures' backyard, over the shallow grave. The small body is curled up in it, carefully placed so the really gross fleshy side is against the ground, so they don't have to look at it. "We should say something."

Yasuhiro nods. "Right."

Yeah. They should say something. But they don't, and Leon can still hear the sounds of the nearest paved road, the one they'd found the body next to. The stupid cat was fucking dead, and it was left to rot out in the sun and get picked apart by crows. It was disgusting, the way this fucking piece of roadkill was starting to fall apart, and Yasuhiro had looked between Leon and the cadaver and scooped the damn thing up in his arms, even though it probably had fleas and rabies and also maggots. And then they'd walked back to Yasuhiro's house and he'd dug a whole-ass hole while Leon watched and now they were here. At a fucking cat funeral, for a fucking cat. Whatever.

Yasuhiro coughs, then drops his voice to a lower register. "Mittens," he says, "you are so, so dead." He stops there, and glances at Leon, like he's looking for approval.

Well. That's a eulogy of some sort, Leon supposes. "Mittens?"

"That's his name, right?" Yasuhiro says. "I mean, we don't know his real one, but Mittens'll do."

"I think it was a stray," Leon says. "It probably didn't have a name."

"I guess so," Yasuhiro says. "Hey, you should say something, too."

"I guess," Leon says. Fuck, the hell is he supposed to say? He didn't know this damn cat. He didn't want to spend his afternoon here, out in the baking sun, in the Hagakures' backyard. Their yard is not a nice place. There's old rusting farming crap all over the place, these ugly misshapen things Leon doesn't have names for. It's all been left out to age and break down. The family's had to sell off their farmland over the years, so the residue of that has been left there, like a towering metal graveyard.

He squats down, to get a closer look at the cat. "I guess," he starts, and then stops. "You know, uh, when someone hits a dog with a car, it's considered property damage. Legally, that is. But that's just wrong, because a dog is alive, and you were alive, Mittens, and you deserved better than the street. You -- you should have had a family that loved you, and took care of you properly, and… I dunno, man. I guess I'm just sorry, that this is your end."

Yeah. That's it, he guesses. Carefully, he rises back to his feet, brushes dirt off the knees of his pants. Mittens' body is still and still gross. Something in his chest is aching, like he's going to cry, but he stamps it out. Leon doesn't have tears to waste on a fucking cat. He doesn't even like cats.

"That was good," Yasuhiro says. "I liked that a lot."

"Yeah," Leon says, because what the fuck is is supposed to say in response to that? Like, thanks, I guess? He watches Yasuhiro refill the hole, and then they go inside and watch some crap reality TV show on the old bunny-eared thing that the Hagakures have. They have to slap it around a bit when the reception gets bad, then smoke out back for a bit, ignoring the patch of upturned dirt. He puts the damn cat out of his mind.

Later that night, Yasuhiro calls him. Leon's phone vibrates right in the middle of dinner. "Something dug up Mittens and dragged him around the yard," Yasuhiro says, without greeting, the moment Leon picks up.

"Oh." Leon glances back at the table, where his parents are sniping at each other. They haven't even noticed he left to go take the call. "Gross."

"Yeah, mom says we should have put him in a plastic bag before we buried him. Whatever it was must have smelled the body. There are, uh, Mittens-bits everywhere in the yard."

"Dude, why are you telling me this?"

"I don't know," Yasuhiro says. "I just wanted you to know, because. Well, I guess you knew Mittens best, right."

Leon listens to the the silence on the other end of the line for a while, soaks in the quiet. Eventually he decides that Yasuhiro's not going to say anything more. Yasuhiro does this sometimes, just stays on the line without saying goodbye. It's like he doesn't want to disconnect from Leon, like he's scared that next time, no one's going to pick up. He's a goddamn coward, never able to say what actually matters.

Which is stupid. Leon's the only one willing to deal with Yasuhiro's bullshit, after all. And where the hell else was Leon going to find another guy who'd hold a funeral for a goddamn piece of roadkill, just because he saw that look of recognition in Leon's eye, that mix of pity and disgust?

"Bye," Leon says, and hangs up right as Yasuhiro finally screws up the courage to say something. He feels kind of bad for missing it, but he dismisses it, goes back to the omelette rice dad burned in the fancy new rice cooker mom had just bought or whatever trivial bullshit the fighting is about tonight. Here, everything is whitewashed walls and lies to the outside. Nothing good happens here. What did Yasuhiro want to say? If it's important, he thinks, Yasuhiro will call back.

He doesn't.


End file.
